The American SetMusic Video Awards Post Largest Television Audience Since 2015
The 2026 MTV Video Music Awards drew an average of 8.43 million viewers on Sunday night across its joint broadcast on CBS and MTV, according to Nielsen Live+same day data. That audience is 51 percent larger than the one the ceremony drew a year earlier. It is also the highest viewership for the awards since 2015. The figure combines viewers from both networks, a broadcast network and a cable channel owned by the same parent company. Nielsen's Live+same day measure counts people who watched the broadcast live, plus those who watched a recording before the end of that day. Viewing on later days is not included in the figure. The numbers are a measure of a national television audience for the annual awards, which recognize work in music video.
With reporting from Variety.